ABSTRACT
The beginning of 1972 had brought heightened tension and internal crisis to Egypt. President Sadat, having failed to fulfill his promise that 1971 would be the ‘year of decision’, was faced with an increasingly rapid drop in his already low domestic popularity. Students and blue collar workers, faced with the dismal economic situation, challenged his authority. Egypt’s internal problems, coupled with the war situation on the Israeli front, gave no hope for optimism. Israeli intransigence prevented progress toward peace. The Soviet Union’s hesitancy in providing Egypt with sufficient armaments for the liberation of the occupied territory in Sinai damaged Sadat even more. A new initiative in Egypt’s internal and international policies and priorities was necessary. However, in the international arena at that time the highest priorities were Vietnam and the scheduled summit meeting between Nixon and Brezhnev; the Middle East was dismissed as a secondary, if troublesome, area of the world.
